New Start Plus: in spaaaaace!

by omaster43

Nick Walters and his merry band of misfits are back with a story about helping Shepard and crew fight giant eldritch robot abominations, most likely through Dumb magic and crazy shenanigans This is a continuation of my previous story, so reading that one first is recommended. but I'm not your nanny you wanna be confused that's your choice. Oc-insert, just came from Dragon age

10. Chapter 10 Living past

45

Ch. 10

Living past

-/-

Nick POV

Ahh~, Satinalia was amazing~. Telsa gave me an 'exceeded expectation' on my performance last night, but I'm pretty sure she was more aroused when I finished last night's paperwork the next morning, to be fair I was wearing the suit she picked out for me, with her favorite tie, and half-moon glasses that made me look sophisticated.

Of course, Dagna and Jak teased me all morning, never really wearing anything this fancy, but it didn't mean much because they were also dressed to the tens. We knew Telsa wasn't coming back with us after Satinalia, so we were going all out for her today, even Sky was wearing a business suit, ready to bust some balls and streamline efficiency. Telsa giggled at our attempts; happy we were trying to impress her.

I of course placed a portal in the Raven's Nest, Ava's hero cave, underneath the house for her to visit us anytime she wanted. After we finished the paperwork, we spent the rest of Satinalia eating, playing games, drinking, and catching up with old friends. Theron got his baby mama and his mistress to agree to move to Sky City along with Alistair and Elissa, Telsa already had a nice plot of land ready for Della's new restaurant along with having Classes ready for Shianni and Theron to teach Law and Arcane Warrior next semester. Alistair and Elissa were being prepped for running Sky City by Aeden and Morrigan.

We even got to share a drink with Cailan and Maric. Maric was officially stepping down from his position as King, giving it to Cailan, much to Alistair's relief. Maric was going to take some time to heal up before traveling Ferelden and seeing what had changed. We were 90% positive he was going to try and sneak into Orlais to rescue Fiona, who we found to be in Montsimmard, deep in Orlesian territory, which made all of us a little nervous, but Loghain said he would look out for him since he was going to be stationed in Orlais, a punishment after going AWOL, ignoring orders, and rescuing Maric.

Turns out Loghain wasn't supposed to be in Antiva whatsoever, he was supposed to head to Kirkwall after some kind of Qunari invasion damaged the Train Station there, but jumped trains and headed to Antiva after he got word about Maric's status among the living.

All and all it seemed like Ferelden was in good hands and could handle my absence for the time being.

It was a good day, and a fun night, but all good times had to come to an end and Reapers needed killing. We kissed Telsa goodbye the next morning and headed back to the Normandy.

-/-

"We're Home~!" I called out walking into our room in the Normandy, where we were properly tackle-hugged to the floor.

"Welcome home!" Ayla cheered, "Had fun at the Landsmeet?"

"Mine~," Sky muttered scooping up Ayla in her hands and squeezing the stuffing out of her.

"Oof~, I... missed you... too Sky~."

"Hey-hey, give me some of that elf~," Jak called out taking Ayla for herself, "I missed you so much, I hate that Nick put me as second-in-line for Sky Valley's control. You're going next year. You smell like peaches~... I like peaches~." her hands traveled down to Ayla's rump, "... Do you taste like peaches?"

Gamer's mind has blocked Jak Hope's racial ability: Lust

"Nnnn~, you darn Hopes', I just wanted some loving, nonsexual, hugs, and it always ends like this~," Ayla gasped.

"Then why are you grabbing my ass~," Jak teased.

"It's a reflex! You devils have corrupted me!"

"Yes~, my pure little Ayla, tainted. Don't worry, I'll clean you right up!" Jak lifted the half-elf and ran off to the rooms. Jak may try and act mature, but she was just as much of a scoundrel as her sister, she just had better control, but a week from the others had made her rather antsy.

The rest of the girls were hanging around the living room, cleaning up the Satinalia decorations.

"It hasn't been 5 minutes~," Dagna sighed.

"How are my idiots~," Nat asked, trying to give Dagna a kiss on the cheek only for the wizard to grab her face and shove her tongue down her throat before popping free and smacking her lips and sighing, like a smoker who hasn't had her fix in days.

"Ugh~," Dagna sighed and flopped on the couch, using Lyna's lap as a pillow, "Don't get me started."

"That fun?" Lyna teased, combing her hair.

Sky came over and shoved Lyna into her breasts. "Mine." before running over to Ava. "Mine."

"Do I wanna know?" Sereda asked, as Sky let her go and ran over to Neria.

"Dragons~," I sighed, retelling the story about what happened during the Landsmeet. You know... when I say it out loud, it was a crazy week, I barely slept, punched a devil, saved a king, and helped a bunch of Dragons. Sky was just marking them, making sure all the other Dragons knew that they belonged to her, which was silly, there were no other dragons here other than Astral.

"Sounds like we had a better week than you, we only had a small problem on Tuesday," Neria started.

Turns out I missed Thane's loyalty mission, which was a shame, I had a Billion Dad jokes locked and loaded and got to use none of them, I mean, I can use them now, but it wouldn't be the same. And it turns out the realm of magic wasn't as far as I thought, or maybe the barrier between realms is thicker than the one in Thedas. It's hard to tell, I haven't really tested them, and didn't want to, who knows what might happen.

"Julee~," Sky called out.

"Sky~," Julee called back, getting scooped up and hugged, "Mine~." She kissed her.

"Mine~." Sky kissed her back.

"No, you're mine!"

"Mine!"

"Mine!"

"So, what did you get from Shepard that was worth two golden tickets?" I interrupted their 'argument'.

"Oh, for him to turn the other way when I'm having my way with the ladies in the Normandy for the week." she gave me a thumbs up, "It was worth it! I feel like I made great progress with Tali, Zura, and Lia. Kasumi is around the corner but I'm closing in, oh, and please have a plot of land ready for Kasumi, make sure it has a good view of Sky Valley. You belong to me!" she went back to making out with Sky.

"Meat~." Dogmeat snuggled up to Pancake.

"Yeah, yeah, I missed ya too. You ain't gonna believe this, Shepard only went and bought one of them bloomin' faux dogs!"

"MEAT!?"

"Blimey, don't get me bleedin' started! I fancied a right tear-up, but Shepard wouldn't 'ave it."

"Meat." Dogmeat nodded.

"I'll tell ya this, I ain't lettin' that blimey thing stay on the ship. It's takin' the mickey outta me!"

Dogmeat just rubbed his head on hers calming her down, "Meat."

"Yeah, well, go 'n' 'andle it!" she chuffed and sat by the fireplace. Dogmeat gave me a look.

"Alright~, alright, let's go see the damage." I led him out to the ship.

-/-

Shepard POV

"We're back!" Nick called out walking into the Common Area. "Heard you guys had some fun without me!" he joked, walking over to the booth where Grunt, Tali, Jenny, and I were sitting.

"Meat." All right, I'm many things, a bit of a jerk, weapon's master, N7 soldier, Master model builder, but I've never been a cunning linguist, while I'm not the best, Dogmeat growling at me and stepping on Nick's foot to stopping him in place, probably meant he wasn't in the best mood.

"Right~," Nick drawled, "Shepard you have insulted his lover's honor and he's here for retribution."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Meat!"

"That stupid toy you bought," Nick translated.

"Meat!"

"To attempt to create the holy image that is Canis, with machine is a sin in the face of Dog God, but I let it go. It is the failure of your people not to use the power that is the dog."

Dog God?

"Meat!"

"BUT TO BRING IT INTO MY HOME!? To insult my lover to her face!?"

"Meat."

"He demands a formal apology."

"Meat."

"And to shove the Fenris mech out the airlock."

"Meat."

"Into a star."

"Meat."

"And then blow up the star."

"I agree with this extreme force of violence," Grunt spoke up, nodding to Dogmeat's demands.

"I don't think we can blow up a star," Tali added.

"But we can try~," Jenny nodded.

Ignoring the comments from the three stooges over here I focused on the dog. "Dogmeat, the mech is already gone, I gave it away yesterday, it never even stepped foot on the Normandy. I'm very sorry for using one."

"Meat."

"Very well, you are forgiven, but be warned Jonathan Shepard, if this were to happen again, you will be given the, CONE OF SHAME!"

Dogmeat gave me one last look, chuffed, and walked away.

"... What was that?" I asked.

Nick just sighed and shook his head, "Dogs take great pride in helping humanity survive into the modern age Shep. You should have just asked Pancake to be your helper."

"I didn't think it would be such a big deal."

Nick shrugged, "I guess you're right, I could probably build a better Shepard, Faster, stronger, emotionally available, kind, can make great speeches, just, the perfect Shepard."

I clicked my teeth, "I get it,"

"I'm pretty sure I can add a cup holder," he continued.

"I, get, it," I hissed.

"I'm just saying, you had a trained Mabari War Hound at your side. It's like if someone needed a professional soldier, looked you dead in the eyes, and then shoved you to the side and picked Conrad Verner to save the galaxy and, through what I can only imagine is an infinite number of miracles, succeeds, making you look like a chump."

"I GET IT! No more Fenris mechs."

"You're lucky he only threatened you with the cone of shame~, it could have been a lot worse," Nick warned.

"Oh, this I got to hear," Jenny leaned forward.

"He could have called you... a bad human," he hissed back as if burned.

.

.

.

"That's it~, I've been called worse... this morning~," Jenny huffed.

Nick shook his head. "You don't understand. For other humans to call you names and curse your very existence, means nothing to a dog. They don't care, they're dogs, they will love you, forever. They will give you the love you think you don't deserve. Don't think I haven't seen Dogmeat and Pancake cuddle up to you, sleeping on your lap, getting your slippers, making sure you eat, talk you out for walks."

"I don't ask them to do that!" She hissed.

"And you don't have to, they love you. To them you are part of their family, one of the pack, to the day you die, and probably after that. Do you know why Dogmeat is named Dogmeat?"

I thought that was your terrible sense of humor?" Tali answered.

Nick shook his head, "Nope, I didn't even name him, he named himself. It's simple really, in case something happens to him, and we are in an emergency, we are allowed to eat him. Of course, I have the same rules, if I were to die and the only way for him to live, he is allowed to eat me."

"Krantt to the end," Grunt nodded.

"So, if someone who loves you without needing anything back, calls you a 'bad human', it means something. It might not mean much here, but in Ferelden, it means everything, you would be shunned, seen less than garbage, people would allow a flesh-eating zombie into their house before they would ever allow you near their outhouse."

"A bit extreme," I muttered.

"A bit, but what are you going to do? Dogs are the National Animal of Ferelden." he pulled out a badge of two dogs in front of a shield, "This is the Ferelden banner. Tali, how would you react if someone slapped Urz back in Tuchanka?"

"I would kill them and bury their bodies so only the weakest of worms would eat them," she answered without hesitation. Maker blessed, what happened to the young Quarian girl who loved ship engines? Oh yeah, me.

"Brutal," Grunt nodded. "I respect that."

"Anyway, now that you have been properly chastised, what's going on with these golden tickets?" Nick asked, moving away from my new dog lore.

"Right, Julee gave me some tickets as a prize for my team-building exercise, they aren't void, right? Julee told me they would work just fine."

Nick shrugged, "It's alright, the tickets are valid, they were yours and you gave them away. I'm a man of my word, but I'm more interested in what Ryder would want, are we still on the Citadel?"

"Yes, we are giving them a ride to Earth, if you're ready we can go collect them," I asked.

He nodded, "Best get this out of the way now unless we have something else to do?"

"Mmm, Garrus thinks he might have a lead on the man who betrayed him and his crew, so we might investigate that before we go. Jenny also has a mission for us, along with Jacob and Samara."

"Sounds good, have you asked your boss for any leads?" he asked, sandwiching Jenny between him and Grunt, much to her annoyance.

"Kinda, he was a bit vague.

The betrayer lives within the broken trap, faded into obscurity by corrupted justice, Heal the corruption, find the betrayer, find the truth.

We know that the betrayer is Sidonis, we know the Broken Trap is the Citadel because the Reapers use it as a trap, but the Prothean broke it. Garrus believes that Corrupted Justice stands for someone in C-sec."

"So, someone in C-sec is making someone disappear?" Nick asked.

"We think so, I had to get Bailey to look over any strange activity within C-sec servers, and haven't gotten anything back."

"Mmm, what if it isn't from C-sec, at least not anymore." Grunt huffed, smoking his bubble pipe. "What if they used to work for C-sec and know the system."

"Like, a pissed-off cop that got fired?" Jenny asked, before shrugging, "That could work, if I got shitcanned you better believe I would start screwing people over."

"And I can break into C-sec's computers in my sleep," Tali huffed.

"So, we're looking for a disgraced C-sec officer, using the system to erase people's identities and make new ones?" I asked.

"Found him!" Garrus called out running into the Common room, "Nick your back, good." he slapped a data pad on the table, "The guy we're looking for goes by the name Fade."

"Lame," Jenny huffed.

"Faded into obscurity~," Nick huffed, "Classic riddle twist."

"Oh good, you're also caught up," Garrus nodded.

"How'd you find him?" I asked looking through the data pad.

"I didn't, Zaeed did, he has a constant track of large groups of Blue Suns in an area. Apparently, they have an operation going on here in the warehouses, using the area to store and sell their mechs, but that's just a front. Every 2 to 3 months they would suddenly gain a large payout, on the surface that's fine, just said they made a big sale, paid some taxes, and C-sec just stopped there. The thing is, no mechs are moved out, just moved around, to another warehouse under the name of Vido Santiago."

"Vido? I'm pretty sure we killed that guy," I muttered looking over the Warehouse.

"Yes, Zaeed killed him with a flaming sword, the correct way to kill your enemy," Grunt nodded.

"The blue suns are just using Vido's name, the only people who know Vido is dead is just us, and I guess some mentally scarred factory workers, but I doubt they even know who he was," Garrus continued. "Looked at the time and date on the shipment."

Looking at the shipping data, I found something off, "It's moved back within the same week... something wrong with the Mechs, money is then refunded? How do you get a refund on something you were never paid for?" I tsked, "They're moving the money. To where?"

"Back to Vido's 'account' but is then dispersed throughout deferent accounts within the Citadel."

"Let me guess, Blue Sun Mercs?" Nick drawled.

"Yep, but one gets more money than the rest."

"Who the hell is Bob Cliffe?" I asked.

"He doesn't exist, used your Spectre codes to see if I could find him, but nothing. So, I thought it was an alias and looked through C-sec's physical archives, one file came back with the name, it was a sting operation six years ago."

"Who was using the name?" Nick asked.

"Roger Harkin."

I blinked at the name, "Harkin... I think I know that guy. He was the drunk who gave me your location back when I was looking for evidence on Saren."

"Corrupted Justice," Nick called out.

"The plot thickens," Grunt added.

"Nope~," Jenny sighed, "If anything the plot is unraveling, making it easier for us to understand."

"That too," Grunt nodded, causing Jenny to roll her eyes.

"Where's the Warehouse?" I asked.

"Zakera's Lower Wards," Garrus answered.

"Suit up," I ordered getting up, "Let's find us a traitor."

-/-

Nick POV

New Quest: An eye for an eye

Garrus has asked you to help him find a traitor who got his old team killed.

Reward: 30,000 XP, 1 gold Loot box, 1 Gacha token, Friendly with Garrus

It took me a moment to realize that Illium's warehouses were modeled after the Citadel's warehouses, but shittier, at least the warehouses in the Citadel had handrails. I mean seriously, how much do handrails cost? The only other difference was that the Citadel's warehouse was stretched out and not built up.

"The mission is simple, grab Harkin and get him to tell us where Sidonis is hiding," Shepard explained, checking his gun for the 3rd time.

"Coolcoolcool... Shepard?" I called, grabbing his attention.

"Yeah?"

"Who the hell are these guys?" I asked, jutting my thumb to a Turian and Salarian woman, as well as a group of N7 soldiers crowding the expanded Kodiak.

"They're Shepard's Boy band," Jenny called out.

"Jenny, don't be ridiculous," Shepard huffed, "They're my backup dancers."

"We are neither of those things," one of the N7 soldiers, Carter, corrected. "Anderson and Hackett told us that you had a contract with them, and we were next on the list."

"Oh~, Carter, Jorge, Kat, Jun, Rosie, and Ghost, or should I call you Emile?" I teased, causing the mute soldier to back away from me.

"Anderson warned us you were... strange," Jorge huffed.

I shrugged, "Not the worst thing I've been called. Do you know what you're asking for?"

"Admiral Hackett and Councilor Anderson gave us the details."

"Good to hear, and you two?" I asked looking over to the Spectre team. "You do understand that me and the council aren't on good terms."

"That's why we are here, trying to mend bridges," the turian, Visia, answered.

I shook my head, "That's not going to work. I find the council to be a few sandwiches short of a picnic, them sending you here is only making it worse."

"You work with Shepard well enough," the salarian pointed out.

I nodded, "Sure, Shepard's my friend and someone I respect. Look me dead in the eyes and tell me you called the Council a couple of idiots to their faces?" there was a moment of silence, "That's what I thought. The council are a bunch of self-serving assholes who have never been told no. They think because they control a section of space that I should be impressed, but I'm not. In fact, I am very unimpressed, they nearly got themselves killed two years ago, after many warnings, having to sacrifice thousands of lives and scarring millions just to keep them alive, only to backslide the second no one was there to keep them to their word."

"You and Councilor Anderson seem to get along," Visia countered.

"Yeah, I know, I have him on my emergency contact list, along with Mordin and Thane. What's your point?"

"Why him and not the others?"

"Because the first time I met David he was wearing armor over his well-pressed suit, pointing a gun to my head. Whatever Anderson was doing, he believed getting to the disturbance I caused was more important to whatever meeting he was at or even his own safety, what did the rest of the council do? They sent a poor C-sec officer to 'handle' the problem, even though Shepard, a council spectre, and David, a councilor, were three feet away from me! They didn't respect either of them, so I had no respect for the council, and there is a good chance I never will. How's the Asari thing going by the way?"

"... they're going." was all the turian said.

I gave a chuckle, "Yeah, I won't hold my breath."

The Kodiak came to a stop as it touched down.

"Isn't this too many people?" Jacob asked. I looked over to the 30 people in the Kodiak.

"... No," Shepard and Garrus said at the same time. This was another change from the game, before, Shepard would only take two squad members, game mechanics would be unplayable if you had to command 12 people at once, but in real life, the only thing stopping you from bringing more crew members was the size of the Kodiak, which I magically expanded. Everyone here was a professional who can make reasonable choices and follow instructions.

As the door opened, we came face to face with half a dozen Blue Sun mercs, they froze watching the clown car of Heavily armed weirdos.

"Shepard... I must insist on getting a pilot, I'm getting tired of this VI nonsense," I huffed.

"Who the hell are you guys!?" one of the Mercs yelled.

Shepard took the lead, "Listen, we don't want any trouble."

"Says the man with a bunch of goons!" the merc yelled back.

"Rich, coming from a no-named asshole in identical armor to his buddies," Zaeed muttered.

Shepard stepped in before anything got crazy, "Listen, you don't need this, look at us man, I mean really look at us, we have enough weaponry to take over a planet, do you guys really get paid enough to deal with this shit?"

The guards looked at Shepard, then at the rest of us, then back to Shepard. "No, no I don't. Good day." the leading guard nodded and sped past us, towards what I presume was the exit.

"You think he warned the rest of the Mercs?" Tali asked.

"Hard to tell," Zaeed huffed, "Most merc groups aren't good with desertion. It's more likely that he just ran, and if anyone asked, he'll just lie and say he wasn't here when it happened."

"Keep focused, after this point, they will have home-field advantage, and I doubt they're just going to run," Shepard called out.

And true to his word an alarm began blaring the moment we stepped into the warehouse proper. It only took a moment for Legion to hack the alarm and Tali to find where it came from.

"There's a center control booth," Tali huffed, "I got control of the cameras, but doors have a manual control." I found that interesting, the easiest way to stop a hacker was to have nothing to hack.

"Do you have Harkin?" Shepard asked.

"Yeah, he locked himself up in the Control room and is trying to call reinforcements," Tali tsked.

Our first problem was the Citadel itself, while the warehouse was nice and huge for storing things, the walkways were only big enough for 5 of us side to side, but like any decent building it had multiple different ways of entering and moving throughout the facility.

"6 teams," Shepard called out, "Tech, Support, Flank, Tank, Leader. We want Fade alive."

Finding our teams came rather easily, you can't work out with someone for nearly 4 months and not know a little bit about them. I could have placed myself into just about any role, but I stuck to Healer due to having few of those. My team consisted of Dogmeat for flank, myself as healer, Kat for Tech, Grunt as Tank, and Carter as lead, our job was to stick to the upper floors and provide covering fire.

Shepard and his team were the spearheads taking the lead, and it didn't take long for the action to start. The Blue Suns were here in force, which honestly confused me, the Citadel was home to C-sec and they tended to hold the place down rather well. Was there really such a need for mercs? They might do some black market dealing, but was the risk really worth it with Illium one Relay jump away? I was beginning to think that Harkin was worth more than I thought.

It didn't take long for the mercs to realize they were outmatched, they decided that numbers would make up the difference and flooded the warehouse with Loki and Fenris Mechs. I can't wait to get my hands on their scraps, while I could repair them it was better to recycle them using my Construction Skill, getting their useful components, and then creating my Fem-bots and Robo-golems.

"RAAH!" I focused ahead on where Grunt was taking his role seriously, putting his Satinalia gift to use. I knew Grunt wanted a martial weapon, but a sword wasn't a good fit for him, Swords needed finesse and skill to use, Grunt was more of a bruiser, he needed a heavy weapon, "RAAH!" He gave another roar using his new Magical Gravity Hammer to turn another Mech into a scrap.

I took inspiration from the Halo series when I created Grunt's weapon. Using runes to simulate the gravity shift the Hammer needed, I also made the hammer use the wielder's magic to work, normally I would use runes to feed the magic the hammer needed, but that would only limit the Hammer's power. This way the hammer was limited by how much magic the Wielder put into it, this gives the Weapon a sense of attunement and ownership, no one is going to be picking it up and using it as well as Grunt.

"Move up!" Carter ordered. Our section wasn't very dramatic, there weren't chest-high walls or convenient boxes that stopped bullets, it was a literal walkway, notorious for not having anything blocking its walkway. But it worked both ways, anyone trying to stop us would have to walk out into the open, where they would be promptly domed. Occasionally, the mercs would use more than one brain cell and try sniping at us from another platform, only for me to unleash a Fireball drowning them in a fiery explosion, I was just happy everything was made of metal.

The Mechs may have made the fight harder if we didn't have a lightning Sorcerer.

"I WAS ABOUT TO GET LAID!" Jak roared, unleashing an overpowered Chain Lightning that tore through the army of mechs.

"Remind me to knock every time I walk into your room," Kasumi muttered.

"I would but we both know you're just going to sneak in anyway. Did you like your gift?" I asked, as I unleashed a barrage of Magic Missiles bludgeoning mercs and mechs, breaking bones and crushing metal.

You have destroyed: 13 Loki-mechs, 2 Fenris-mechs, and 8 Blue Sun mercs

Reward: 3,200 credits, 3,800 XP, 2 sheets of lightweight ablative ceramic, 20 grams of copper, 2 Avenger rifles, 1 storm shotgun

XP split 12 ways

You have gained 316 XP

Jak Hope has destroyed 43 Loki-mechs, 14 Fenris-Mechs, 3 Blue suns

Reward: 9,400 Credits, 5,900 XP, 12 sheets of Lightweight ablative ceramic, 3 M-4 shuriken submachine guns

XP split 12 ways

You have gained 491 XP

I shut off my notifications, didn't need that blocking my view.

"I love them~," she smiled at me as two robotic arms sprouted from behind her back holding two hand cannons, providing suppressive fire as she used her omni-tool to hack shields.

"Need a little support here," Neria called over the comms, her team was being swarmed by flying turrets and mechs.

"On it," I called out, "Kasumi can you hack into the speaker system?"

"Uh~? Hold on~." she played with her omni-tool. "You're live."

"Perfect~," my voice called out from all around us. "Carter, consider this a taste of what you're asking for." I started pumping power into my most dangerous support spell.

The snapping of fingers caught our attention, turning we found a rather short elderly woman in a red dress with tiny fairy wings keeping her afloat, "C-minor, put in a C-minor." just as a piano came alive across the warehouse.

-/-

Garrus Vakarian POV

"Where have all the good men gone, and where are all the gods~," a soft voice called out over the speakers.

"What the-"

"Get ready," Ayla called out, "Its going to hit you hard, and we got about 4 minutes to destroy everything in our way, Melee only, no guns."

"-Where's the street-wise Hercules, to fight the rising odds~?"

"Ayla? What's about to happen?" Tali asked.

"Nick loves this spell; it ranks in his top Five," Ayla warned allowing her magic to coat her body.

"-Isn't there a white knight upon a fiery steed?"

I felt my insides ignite, the world around me became brighter and more vivid, colors popped, and the bullets that were whizzing past us almost seemed to slow and the noise began to fade.

"-Late at night I toss and turn and dream of what I need~."

"Brace," was the last thing heard before everything stopped, and music rose in volume and speed.

"I NEED A HERO!"

And with that, Ayla blitzed into action, breaking cover and launching herself forward. Shepard tried to stop her, but she was long gone. Spying over cover I found her already nearing halfway through the warehouse, mace in hand slamming everything out of her way.

"I'm holding out for a hero 'til the end of the night!"

Mechs she batted out of the way seemed to be floating through the air mid-disintegration.

"He's gotta be strong!"

Suddenly Sky was there, claws outstretched decapitated a Merc in a single swing, the merc didn't even know they were dead, still focusing down range at us.

"And he's gotta be fast!"

Neria flashed forward fist glowing tearing everything apart. At one point she grabbed a container and flung it with considerable strength only for it to freeze mid-flight towards a Merc and kept running forward.

"And he's gotta be fresh from the fight!"

Whatever spell Nick was using was enhancing their speed and power, a flash of movement caught my attention, turning I found Tali flashing forward throwing a right hook into a mech crushing its chest chassis like thin aluminum.

"I need a hero!"

I felt myself move, one second, I was behind cover, the next I was across the battlefield in front of a mech. Acting on reflex, I activated my omni-blade and cut straight through the mech. There was no resistance, like cutting through warm butter, taking another step I appeared in front of another mech, and like before I cut it down moving on to the next.

I don't know what spell Nick used, but I didn't have time to think about it, I just had to keep moving, Sidonis was within reach. I can't flinch now.

The music almost seemed to fade into the background as I blitzed my way through the guards and mechs, racing toward the center of the warehouse, at one point a YMIR mech was standing in our way only for Shepard and me to slam through it, not slowing down in any way.

The world was slowly speeding up returning to normal speed as we reached the center of the warehouse, the control room within sight looming over everything. It had a large window overlooking the Warehouse floor, with my new magical eyepiece I could see Harkin at the controls screaming at someone, but they were out of frame.

A shockwave of sound washed over me as the music came to an end, bullets continuing their flight, Mechs exploding, bodies hitting the floor, even my own breath. I was taking it all in before a pair of hands pulled me into cover.

"Deep breath," Ayla ordered, Shepard and Tali next to her.

"What... was that," I gasped. It took a second, but I could feel my muscles burning.

"Inspiration," she answered like that meant anything. "Nick uses magic to enhance himself and others, the more mana used, the greater the effects, and Nick juiced us pretty well. Just give yourself a moment, the remaining bits of magic in your system will heal you."

"Shepard, Walters is down," Carter came over the Comms.

"Give him a second," Ayla answered for Shepard, who was still out of breath. "With this amount of people and the power he gave, I wouldn't be surprised if he just blew his whole load."

"I can go... another round~," Nick gasped over the comms.

"Heard that before," Nat teased.

Nick couldn't hold it back and just started laughing, causing the rest of us to give a light chuckle, "Don't worry about me Shepard, you and Garrus go get Harkin before he tries to run, any sensible person would after you see someone rip through a warehouse of Mechs and mercs under 5 minutes."

"You heard him," Shepard took in one last breath and looked over our cover, following his lead, I found the other four teams spread throughout the large Central area, with Carter's team in the top left and Miranda's team in the top right. Unlike before where there was a small army of mechs and mercs, now there are only small pockets of resistance, mostly panicking and running, sending whatever mechs they have left as they made a run for it.

They had one last YMIR mech, but it was quickly destroyed by a super-heated beam laser courtesy of Astral's shoulder-mounted heavy weapon Nick and Jacob made using a Collector particle beam they looted and reversed-engineered. It wasn't sleek or compacted like the Collector weapon, but what it missed in style it made up in power and duration, where the heavy Collector weapon needed heavy Power Cells, the 'Dragon laser', as Nick called it, was powered by a mini-arc reactor and enhanced by magic. If it didn't kick like an angry Quarian, I would own one myself. Nick wanted to use it as the Puma X-8's secondary weapon, moving the Rotary gun as a tertiary weapon when Hackett returned his ship.

Any normal person would think that was too much for a fighter... not me though, I can see it now, a tiny fighter destroying cruisers, shit, maybe even Dreadnoughts if we use enough power. The Normandy is technically a frigate, but it can knock the teeth out of any Dreadnought that gets too cocky.

"Team 2 cover the side exit, Team 3 and 4 cover the back, 5 and 6 keep a lookout," Shepard ordered, but before we could do anything the windows exploded outwards as a group of 3 mercs flew out in jetpacks.

They didn't look like blue suns, their armor was black and were made up of different species.

"AAHHHHHH!" Harkin screamed as he was being carried away.

"SKY! ASTRAL!" Shepard ordered.

I've seen Sky and Astral in the air before and came to the quick conclusion that only a crazy person would challenge the dragon in the air. They proved me right as the dragons blitzed them, one of them didn't even know what hit them, Astral came up behind, tore off the jetpack, and let them plummet to the ground. Sky tackled the one carrying Harkin away and unleashed her frost breath at the last one freezing them in place, before they plummeted to the ground shattering into tiny pieces.

"Here you go," Sky passed me Harkin and punched the merc on her other hand stopping them from squirming.

"Do you have any idea what you've done!?" Harkin roared. "That's one of the Shadow Brokers men! You're DEAD, you hear me!?"

"The Shadow Broker?" I asked.

"SPY!?" Sky cheered, ripping the mask of the dazed merc, and shoved her fingers into the Asari's mouth, before yanking out a tooth.

"Eww~," Tali gagged.

"Look, poison! Like in the spy movies!" Sky cheered.

Shepard takes the tooth from her giving it a once over. "Sky, this is a regular tooth."

"Oh." she pulled out another molar. "What about this one?"

"Please stop doing that," Tali muttered.

"Movies told me that spies have poison teeth, I just have to find it," she pulled out another tooth.

It was rather gruesome to see, Harkin seemed to agree. "I'm looking for someone." I took this moment to strike.

"Wha? All this because you wanted to find someone!?"

"We weren't the ones who shot first, all you had to do was give us what we wanted, you decided to use lethal force, don't get upset we had bigger guns." I put him in a headlock and had him watch as Sky kept ripping off teeth.

"What about this one?" she asked, passing Shepard another tooth.

"Nope," Shepard answered, tossing the tooth away.

"Sky, we can't prove she works for the Shadow Broker," Tali pointed out.

"Zone of Truth!" a wave of holy energy washed over us creating a dome, courtesy of Ayla.

"... or we can~."

"Let's not stick around hostile territory. Ask your questions and let's get the Void out of here," Ayla hurried us.

I let Harkin go so he could see how serious I was, "I'm looking for a Turian, Lantar Sidonis, yellow face paint, from Omega, he may have gotten here about 2 months ago."

Harkin gained a strange look, almost like he wasn't there, "I remember him... he didn't have face paint, he didn't have anything. There was very little I could do for him, I just changed his name and gave him a new life, but I doubt that really did anything."

What the hell is he talking about? "Where is he?"

"Little place in Tayseri ward."

"Call him, get a meeting."

"... no," he blinked getting his wits about him.

"What?" I hissed, wrapping my hands around his neck.

"ACK!?"

"GARRUS!" Shepard snapped at me, causing me to drop Harkin. "Calm, down. We've had this conversation before. You can't control how others will act-"

"-but I can control how I react." I took a deep breath, "Why not?" I asked Harkin.

"I'm an asshole, I'm not going to lie, I know what I am. But what you did to that man... I won't work for monsters."

"He betrayed me and got my friends killed, his friends, he deserves what I'm going to do to him," I hissed.

"If he betrayed you, you should have killed him, not... not what you did to him." He looked at me like I was a monster.

"I haven't done anything, yet. What's wrong with him?"

This time Harkin looked like he was trying to swallow his fist. "Broken, everything was broken!" he gasped. "I might not get along with Turians, but what happened to him... I wouldn't do that to my worst enemy."

"He owes me a pound of flesh."

"No... he doesn't, and I doubt you can collect."

"Harkin, you got two options, you set up a meeting and this ends here, I let you go, or I take you to C-sec, and they will dig deep into this, find every person you hid away, and then let you go, we both know they will get to you before C-sec gets to them. At the end of the day, I will get Sidonis and your whole organization will be brought down, whether you live or die, is all up to you."

"You're a bastard. I need to use my omni-tool."

"You'll pay for thisth," the Asari hissed through the blood in her mouth and missing teeth. "Thee Shadoo Brooker won't take kindly to you getting in his business."

"Mmm~, where is the Shadow Broker?" Shepard asked.

What a simple Dangerous question.

"I don't know," she grunted out.

"What does the Shadow Broker want with Harkin?" I asked.

"... Names are power, The Broker wants the names Harkin hid away... that way he can blackmail them into becoming his agents," she coughed out.

"Mmm, how did the Shadow Broker learn about Harkin?" Shepard asked.

"Deal... with the Blue Suns."

"Mmm, I have no more questions," Shepard shrugged.

"I got this, Rest your body in the Maker's embrace," She chanted, tapping the Asari on the forehead causing her to slump over asleep.

"Nice, Sky, Tali, get her to C-sec, see if we can get anything out of her. Harkin, are you finished?"

"...Yeah, I got you a meeting, told him something's gone wrong with identification, he'll meet you in the shipyard in Zakera. Can I go now?" he huffed, passing me his omni-tool.

Part of me wanted to shoot him, I know C-sec would patch whatever Harkin used to sneak his way into the system, but there was always a chance he might find another way. But I gave my word, and when all things are lost, what remains?

"Get out of here Harkin, all this, it's over, I would suggest you change your name before your backdoor closes. And if he doesn't show up, I'll find you, I found him." I waved him away.

"You don't have to tell me twice... and Garrus... just kill him, don't drag it out, enough is enough." he took off running as his Omni-tool beeped with the location I was killing for.

"Are you okay?" Shepard asked, putting a hand on my shoulder, and shaking me back to the present.

"...yeah, let's just get this over with."

I have you now Sidonis.

-/-

"Garrus, bud. I think you might have a bit of tunnel vision," Nick called out from across from me as we flew to the meeting point in the Kodiak.

"... I'm fine."

"No~, you have that Cousland rage building up, all you can see is your friends' corpses, remember that we are going to a very public place, there are going to be innocent people there, people who don't need to see some dude's skull explode."

"He betrayed me."

"So, a child has to be emotionally scarred for that!?"

"Didn't you hang a bunch of pedophiles in some main street?"

"AND I MADE SURE EVERYONE KNEW THEIR CRIMES!" Nick hissed back, "I did not hide away with a sniper rifle picking them off. I dragged them through the streets, and I was there as they died. I made sure their bodies were cold and stiff before I burned them and buried their ashes in an unmarked grave. If you're going to kill Sidonis, make sure he knows who is killing him and why." He passed me a blade, it was small with a very sharp point, and it could easily slip past a Turian's scales. "You wanna be this Avenger, well guess what? You don't get to run away."

"He's right," Zaeed huffed. "Shooting him will only distance you from what you're about to do. It will eat at you, Sidonis wouldn't know his crimes, shit, I've seen you shoot, he won't even know he's dead for a while."

"I just want to kill him," I countered.

"Oh? So, you don't feel a burning lump of coal in the pit of your stomach that keeps you up at night? That makes you sick every time you look in the mirror? That makes clean your rifle to the tiniest spick in the fear that a tiny piece of dust will be the reason you miss? To have nightmares of their face laughing at you? Unable to eat a full meal?" I remained quiet as Zaeed called out my daily symptoms. "You need to confront your demons."

"Like you?"

"Yeah, like me. I don't talk about it because it's none of your business, but I go to Kelly's therapy sessions, I talk about what happened to me, and for the first time in a long time, I slept a full eight hours, I eaten a full lunch, I shaved without nicking myself just to see me bleed, to prove that I didn't die that day when Vido shot me through the head. You need to look him in the eyes when you kill him or else, you won't be able to see yourself in the eyes."

The shuttle grew quiet, I looked over to John who was sitting next to me in silence.

"...John... What do I do?"

"... Nothing has ever been simple for us, has it?" he sighed, "I'm not going to lie to you Garrus, knowing why he did what he did will make it easier for you to move on, but that might also stir up feelings you thought you moved passed, sometimes just knowing that he is dead will be enough for you to move on, sometimes it won't. I still remember the time after we destroyed Sovereign and Saren, I thought I gave Kaiden's soul justice, but I still had nightmares, I still heard his voice in the mess hall, I still have migraine medicine on me. It wasn't easy, it still isn't easy, but stopping Saren, destroying Sovereign... it helped. Did I have to know Saren was crazy, thinking the Reapers would protect him? No, but it made Kaiden's sacrifice more important. I don't know if Sidonis was just playing the long game or just snapped, but you have always been a man who looked for the truth, and if you don't find it, it will eat at you," he warned.

I could already feel it gnawing at the back of my mind. Sidonis was many things, but traitor? Never. Why? What could he have gotten that he would have sold us out? "Keep him busy, if he sees me, he'll probably run." I felt the Kodiak touch down.

We landed nowhere near the meet-up point, it would be kinda stupid to land a platoon of soldiers in a supposedly quiet meeting spot. Of course, it wasn't crazy to see a few soldiers in a hanger bay, the Citadel was a popular shore leave destination and a large melting pot with different species made it home, so seeing a soldier returning home wasn't a crazy thing. Most of the team that wasn't escorting the broker agent to C-sec was spread out throughout the bay keeping the exits secure.

Shepard took it upon himself to be the middleman wearing a colorful purple cowboy hat and fake handlebar mustache, it was the thing Sidonis was supposed to look for. It was stupid, but no one else was wearing something similar, so I guess it was working.

At the moment I was using Nick's invisibility cloak standing in a low-traffic area waiting for Sidonis to make contact. It didn't take long for a turian in a traditional face cover and cloak that only a priest would wear to start talking to Shepard, who nodded to some rest chairs near me.

The mask was fairly new, with no marking the elder priest had showing their status. He must have joined rather recently.

"Fade isn't here?" Sidonis asked sitting down. Something was wrong with his speech pattern, like he gained a lisp.

"No, he's... going out of business," Shepard answered, sitting next to him. "Things are getting hot and had to disappear himself."

"...it was Garrus, wasn't it?"

"...yes."

"...He's here, isn't he?"

"...Yes."

"...I'm still alive?"

"For now," I answered, removing the cloak.

Sidonis didn't even flinch looking up at me. "Garrus." He sounded so tired.

"Why are you wearing that?" I asked.

"I joined the local Spirit Sect."

"Didn't know you were religious."

"...Less faith, more redemption."

"...Why'd you do it?"

"You make it sound like it was a choice." he slowly reached up, allowing me to see under his cloak, at his new robotic arm, leg, and withered body. I felt my throat go dry as he slowly revealed his face.

"Spirits." most of his face was gone, his right eye was gone, along with his right mandible, multiple teeth, and most of his face plates.

"I gave them some of our trap hideouts, they didn't like that. I lasted as long as I could, but we all broke. I'm guessing you're the only one that survived?"

"...Yes."

"...Can you kill me somewhere quiet, away from others?"

"...I'm not going to kill you; you're already doing that without my help."

"...how do you do it? I can't close my eyes without seeing them, I can't eat, I can't sleep, I can barely stand."

"Friends... people who depend on me; I can't let my self-hatred, or my restless nights hold me down. I can't let their death mean nothing; you can't let their death mean nothing." I grabbed him and lifted him to his feet. "You're not allowed to die Sidonis, not until you make it up to them." I shoved him to the floor and tossed him my old holo-visor, "Erash, Monnteague, Mierin, Grundan Krul, Melenis, Ripper, Sensat, Vortash, Butler, and Weaver, their names are burned into that visor, and onto your soul, never forget that they died so you can live." He didn't look at me. "Let this be the last day we meet Sidonis."

I closed my heart to him, the man who helped me fight the galaxy's worst criminals, who helped me grieve my best friend's death, who helped build my team, Lantar Sidonis was dead. I don't know who this thing was.

I felt a hand land on my shoulder, "... Garrus, it's time to go." I turned to find Shepard giving me a firm nod. I let out a sigh and followed his lead. "How are you feeling?"

"Empty, I thought he betrayed us for money, for power, for... something! I had it all in my head that he was a selfish monster who would sell out his own mother for a quick cred. Turns out he was as broken as I was... more so even."

"Come on, let's get a drink and you can tell me all about them."

"You think Nick has that super expensive Turian Brandy?"

"If not, we'll bully him until he buys one," Shepard joked.

-/-

Nick POV

Quest completed: An eye for an eye

Garrus has asked you to help him find a traitor who got his old team killed.

Reward: 30,000 XP, 1 gold Loot box, 1 Gacha token, Friendly with Garrus

Gamer Human

Nick Walters

Lvl: 73

EXP: 42,103/74,000

HP: 2,440/2,440 (+armor 5,645/5,645)

Barriers Durability (outer 250/ mid 500/ inner 1000)

MP: 2,080/2080 (+armor = 5125/5125)

CP: 2,440/2,440 (+armor = 5645/5645)

Stat points: 59

74,329G 73S 13C

479,392,432 Credits

I slid Garrus some super expensive Turian Brandy on the rocks, it was over a hundred years old and the Turian fruit it was made with had been extinct for years.

I didn't say anything, just stood behind the Bar cleaning a random glass next to my robot bartender.

"...Why are you wearing that?" Garrus asked.

I looked down at my old-timey bartender outfit, "You like it? I thought it matched the esthetics."

He shrugged, "... it's not bad."

"Thanks~." we fell back to a calm silence.

"...Why are you cleaning a glass?"

"I learned recently that people get uncomfortable if their bartender isn't doing something, imagine if I was just standing here doing nothing."

"...it would be weird." he nodded.

A hand slammed on the counter, "Then how about you give me a drink you bosh'tet!?" Tali roared. She's been glaring at me since I got behind the counter. Most of the ground crew was in the bar but was focused on Garrus, Shepard was collecting the Ryders.

"Aren't you still in trouble for having your way with me?" I huffed.

That caused her to shutter, "T-THAT WAS OVER A WEEK AGO!"

"GASP! Are you saying my body is only a week's worth of punishment!?" I acted faint.

"Barely~."

"Gasp the second! I'll have you know my body is at least two weeks' worth of punishment, 3, if I get into it~," I teased.

"Uh-huh~," she rolled her eyes. "Garrus, give me some of yours." she reached for Garrus's brandy, only for Garrus to slap her hand away. "HEY!? You bosh'tet!"

"Keep your hands to yourself, ya perv."

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A PERV!?" she hissed, slapping at Garrus's drink.

"HEY! HEY!?" Garrus draped himself over his drink. "Are you crazy!? This is an Oromus 2017! It's worth more than my soul!" at 1.2 million creds a bottle, you better believe it wasn't something wasted. I placed it behind some bulletproof see-through vault on the top shelf behind me.

"Is it really that good?" Tali asked, still reaching for his cup. "Gimme some!"

"You've lost your damn mind! Tell your boyfriend over there to get you a glass."

"Pah-lease, you think Nick can lock this down~," she huffed, gesturing to herself.

"Girl please~, I can seduce your pants off and then back on, and then back off! I'm as smooth as a slippery slide~."

"You're as smooth as a cactus~," Tali huffed.

"Yes~, a desert cactus, the only water you'll find for miles," I countered.

"I'd sooner die of dehydration."

"Don't worry you can die under my thick, bulging, pulsating, cactus shade."

"Gee, thanks for the 2 inches of shade, it will keep me nice and cool~."

"Really? Because from where I'm standing, it sounds like I got you all hot and bothered ~," I shot back.

"Yeah well... shut up and get me a drink."

"WOAH~, point Nick~," I cheered.

"Just get me a drink, damn bartenders, thinking they're funny," she huffed.

"Here, some mild Quarian beer~," I passed her a bottle of Ron'Gomo's light ale.

"Ron'Gomo's? I didn't know Quarian's made alcohol?" Tali took a swig.

"The shop~." Most of the ground crew knew of the Gamer's Store, they knew it as the Multiversal shop, they didn't really understand it, and just chalked it up to magic nonsense.

"Mmm~," Tali nodded, giving the bottle a once over, and looking at the bottle's list of ingredients. "Berl'y? BERL'Y!?" she screamed.

"This is why John and I don't take you drinking," Garrus huffed. "What is Berl'y anyway?"

"It's the main ingredient in Quarian Alcohol! We lost our supply over 200 years ago. It wasn't considered an essential crop, the only reason we had any was because a smuggler ship was transporting some as the Geth revolted, but Berl'y didn't do well in space and died out." she took another swing, "AHHH~, that's the stuff! It must have cost you a fortune."

I shook my head, "Nah~, I got it by the crateful, super cheap. It's a really light beer and Dextro to boot, not a lot of people can drink it. I got it after your wild night, didn't want Shepard getting angry at me for serving you anything too heavy." I popped a bottle open and took a swig, "This stuff is practically water, with a sight fruity aftertaste. I've had worse, Dwarven ale is mostly dirt and mushrooms." I was going to take another swig, but Tali snatched it from me.

"If you're not going to appreciate it don't drink it!" she chugged her first bottle and guarded the second. "People would kill for these!"

"Tali, they're light beers~, calm down," I huffed. "Besides, I doubt any Quarian in this dimension can drink them, other than you, Zura, and Lia... and the ones I cured... and Turians, I guess."

"Did you change us that much?" Tali muttered, sipping at her bottle.

"No, the migrant fleet has changed that much, your immune system is as sturdy as wet clay, that's why I can modify your DNA. If I met a Quarian from Rannoch I probably wouldn't be able to do that," I explained, popping two new bottles open and passing them to Lia, who was asking for one for her and Zura.

"Thanks!" she gave Tali a high... three? And walked back to her booth with Lia, Sereda, and Neria.

The three Quarians have really gotten close with one another, I'm not sure if it was just because they were Quarians or the fact that this was a Cerberus mission, or just because they had work outside their Normandy duties, they were in 'casual clothes' today, skinny jeans, t-shirts with their clan markings one size too small so they clung to their bodies, boots, and a pair of sunglasses.

"Good to see you making non-crazy friends~," I teased. "... well, kinda, they're still on a suicide mission, but they're normal by our standards."

"Yeah, well, it's either them or a bunch of Cerberus Bosh'tets," she leered at me, "Or Pervs~."

"Gasp! Are you talking about me!?"

"If the Omni-tool fits."

"You're the one who stripped me naked in the middle of the bar and humped me! Garrus back me up on this!"

"Absolutely not," he chuckled, sipping his brandy.

"You need to get over that~," Tali huffed.

"Get over it!? You held me down, you used me to play out one of your fantasies, you shoved your gunk down my throat, and didn't even have the nerve to call me the next morning! You just pumped and dumped."

"You know what that was! I just had some aggression, and you were the only one to solve it!"

"We both know that's a lie! I have no doubt Julee or Jak could have given you what you wanted, but you chose me because I was an easy mark, the second you had me on the ground you didn't hesitate, I was defenseless and you took advantage," I hissed.

"Defenseless!? HA! We both know you could have escaped at any time, admit it, you enjoyed it! You look like the type of man who would need a woman to make the first move," she teased.

"Why I never!? I am a gentleman, I was raised to get to know someone before they got any of this~," I gestured to my body.

"I've seen cooks like you in every two-bit restaurant in the galaxy."

"GASP! I have never been more insulted in my life! Garrus, are you going to let her insult me like that?"

"Don't drag me into this. Also, refill," he tapped his glass.

"Fine, if Garrus doesn't want to do his Turian-born duty to meddle-"

"-That's more of an Asari thing," Garrus butted in.

"-then I'm going straight for the throat. Apologize for insulting my honor, or I get ugly~," I hissed at Tali.

"And here I thought you couldn't get any uglier~," she joked.

I reached across the bar, and gently but firmly grabbed her face, "Remember, I gave you an out," I said in a thick New York accent, before giving her a mafia kiss on each cheek.

"W-Wha!?"

"JULEE! Tali said she wanted to wear some Club clothes! Something to show off the goods!" I called out across the bar. Julee's head snapped towards me like Dogmeat when I had treats. I quickly took a step back away from Tali, who still blushing at my kisses, her pupils fully dilated trying to gain as much information as possible before what I said clicked, her pupils turned to slits, and she moved to strangle me, only for Julee to already be there, hugging her tightly.

"GAK!?"

"Oh, Tali! I knew it, I had a dozen outfits ready, but I was waiting for you to get comfortable, but I knew you were brave!" she started dragging her away, "I've also been thinking of lingerie!"

"NICK!" Tali screamed, pointing her finger at me, "I'll be back for you! You hear me! Just you wait! JUST YOU WAIT!" she threatened as she disappeared out of the bar, watching me drink the rest of her beer.

"..."

"..."

"...You know she's going to kill you, right?" Garrus asked.

"If she can catch me~."

Shepard took that moment to walk into the Bar with a confused look with three other people, "Why does Tali sound like a Thrasher Maw?"

"Nick," Garrus answered.

"...She's going to kill you one of this days, you know that, right?"

"Bah~, not the first angry woman I had to dodge," I shrugged.

"Did any of those women live with you?" Garrus teased.

"Are you crazy~, of course not... OH NO! Bah~," I shrugged, "I'll just bribe her with chocolate~."

"Please don't," Shepard drawled, "Anyway, this is Alec Ryder and his two kids."

I snapped a quick Observe. "Scott and Sara Ryder," their shocked looks filled me with joy, "Nice to me- oh no," I looked down spotting the Fenris mech.

"MEAT!?" Dogmeat jumped to his feet, giving out a bone-rattling growl.

"Dude, you were warned this morning man, come on~," I sighed rubbing my face.

"It's not my mech!" Shepard argued.

"MEAT! MEAT MEAT!"

"But it is your ship though," I countered.

"HEY! Whoa there boy," Scott jumped in front of his mech.

"Meat~," Dogmeat growled.

I gave a cough and began translating, "Move human child, you protect a crime against dogkind."

"This is my dog!" Scott huffed.

The hatred pouring out of Dogmeat was almost visible. "Meat."

"Called that thing a dog one more time, and I'll make you identical twins."

Scott gulped, taking a step back, his sister stepped in front of him.

I gave a sharp whistle freezing Dogmeat in place, looking back at me for orders, "You can't blame Scott for having a mech."

"Meat!"

"I know you don't like it, but not everyone has the ability or time to raise a dog. The Ryder Clan is more of a spaceship family and we both know dogs need room to grow."

Dogmeat chuffed and turned to Shepard. "Meat."

"That's fair," I turned to Shepard and pointed my finger at him.

"Nick?" he backed away; shock written on his face.

"You were warned my man, Clothes Beam!" I hit him dead on, and a large dog cone appeared around his neck, but instead of shooting up and blocking his view, it was facing down limiting his arm movement.

Due to your hard work and effort, one of your Skills has Ranked Up!

Clothes Beam – Using mana you can create clothes out of your imagination, the detail and size of the clothes estimates the MP cost.

Rank – intermediate

-30% MP needed to finish product.

You can now recycle cloth, metals, and jewels into making new clothes.

"What the-, Nick!?" Shepard cried, trying to get rid of the cone, bumming into things. "Get this thing off!"

"I could but that would mean you would have to fight Dogmeat, and I'm not going to lie to you, I don't think you can take him," I warned.

"Nick~!"

"Yeah-yeah, relax, it will come off as soon as the Fenris mech is off the Normandy, until then, sit tight and, uh, don't scratch yourself."

"Maker give me patience," he fumbled over to the chair next to Garrus, "... how am I supposed to drink like this?"

"Garrus!? Your boyfriend needs a drink, feed him," I teased.

"I knew it was a bad idea for you to meet my sister," he huffed, "Just give him an emergency induction port." I put a straw in Shepard's whisky.

"That's a straw Garrus," Shepard sighed, trying to get the straw into his mouth.

"Oh, I'm sorry, when did your people invent this 'straw'? Was it a thousand years ago?" he drawled.

"It was actually 5000 years ago," Alec answered, taking a drink of the Rum and Coke I placed in front of him.

"5000 years ago!? What the hell!? You guys had emergency induction port technology 5000 years ago and you just got into space!? Humans are so weird."

"How would a straw help us get to space Garrus?" Shepard huffed.

"Everybody knows the second the emergency induction port is created; a space elevator is the next invention."

"You're making that up," Shepard huffed.

"I might be, I wasn't the best at history, but I'm pretty sure that's how it went." he took another sip of his drink, "Damn this is some damn good Brandy~."

"Try not to get drunk," Shepard warned.

"No worries there, Nick is keeping the good stuff locked away." he pointed to the glass vault at the top of the bar.

"Is that Henri IV Dudognon Heritage Cognac Grande Champagne!? you can't buy those anymore!" Alec jumped to his feet.

"Thank you for noticing, only Miranda and Ghost seemed to care," I pointed to the N7 soldier slowly enjoying his drink, "not even Kasumi's tried to steal it!"

"I'm not a Brandy kind of girl, I like my Sake, you got any of that?" she teased.

I immediately jumped into the Gamer's store and searched for the greatest bottle of Sake this side of the multi-verse, only to have to change the Filter because some of these would kill the average superhuman.

Clear Gold – Magical full-body Sake crafted by the finest Slime Kurabitos located in the Singeo Highlands.

500 gold per bottle

It was at this moment that I realized I knew nothing about Sake, to be fair I knew just about nothing when it came to Alcohol, that was what Oghren was for. The only rice-related drink I could make was horchata. There's a reason Moonshine is illegal, still, the Gamer's store is telling me that it was drinkable for normal people, soooo~.

Thank you for your purchase, no refunds.

I pulled the drink out of my inventory, it was in a rather fancy black bottle, inlaid with gold writing, it even came with a black saucer.

NEW RUNE LEARNED!

Long lasting – this rune gives the drink poured over it a longer, enhanced, flavor.

Please drink responsibly.

The saucer had a glowing rune in the center. Neat. I popped the bottle open releasing a dim light and poured the liquor into the saucer, where the light became brighter.

"Whoa~." I reached out, but my hand was slapped away, "Hey!?"

"Have you ever heard about ladies first~," Kasumi teased, I didn't even see her move closer. "What am I looking at?"

"Clear Gold," I showed her the bottle, "Full body, created by some of the best."

"Grilled fish, with some veggies and white rice please~," she gave me a puppy dog look. I rolled my eyes and provided her side dish. She hummed as she tasted the fish and rice, before taking a sip of her alcohol. We were all looking at her, waiting for a reaction. "Oh damn~."

"Oh damn?" I asked.

"Oh damn," she confirmed. Chugging the rest of it and giving a rather un-lady-like sigh, "That's what I'm talking about~!" she gave a little dance, "Where the hell were you hiding this!?" she asked, eating the rest of her dish and humming. "I definitely would have stolen this!" She offered the saucer for another hit; I filled it before putting it away in the glass vault. "HEY!? I wasn't done with that!"

"Yes, you are," I huffed, "This stuff is expensive, meaning it's only for special occasions."

"I'm just going to steal it~."

"Good luck~. I'm not an idiot like Hock, that Vault is locked up tight, enough Runes and Tech to make Julee and Tali think twice."

"You wouldn't make a lock I can't crack, you love me too much," she glared.

I smirked at her, "Too true," I pulled a key from around my neck, "There are four other runic keys needed to open the vault, good luck finding them~."

She chugged the rest of her drink, gave a little gasp and danced, "You might as well hand it over now~."

"And deny you the hunt? You would kill me~."

She gave me a Cheshire smirk before disappearing. "What a cocky little wizard~," she whispered into the wind.

We stood there in silence, waiting to see if she would try anything but nothing happened.

"Mmm," I turned to the confused Ryder clan, "So~, I heard you have something for me~."

-/-

Alec gave me the run down; he and his family were part of the Andromeda initiative and were in the process of shipping out when my fumbling around for him caught his attention, but it was my ability to heal that caught his interest.

Walking out of the Normandy and into the Hyperion's hanger bay, I gave the massive dreadnought a good look around. We had a big group with us, Anderson with his N7 team, the Ryder Clan, Shepard, Ayla, Dagna, EDI, Tali, Garrus, Jak, Julee, Neria, and Jenny, who wanted to stretch her legs.

"Damn~, not a bad ship~." The Hyperion was a fine ship, with a length of one and a half kilometers, she was one of the largest non-reaper ships ever created.

Some people hated Andromeda, others didn't, I was indifferent, it was a good game that had some bugs sure, but it was trying something new, Andromeda didn't have Galaxy destroying mechanical abominations to drive its plot, but it had people, it had survival, it had cooperation, did it fumble? sure, but goddamn it, it tried!

"Thank you," a middle-aged Asian woman greeted our group, "... Whoever you are."

"Captain Dunn, this is Nick Walters, Nick, Captain Nozomi Dunn," Anderson introduced me. Anderson was taking a small break from his councilor duties, which is what he told Ambassador Osoba before passing him the responsibility of Councilor for a few weeks, right in front of Udina too, just to rub salt in the wound. In reality, he was checking in on the Andromeda initiative, I wasn't sure how much the Alliance had invested in the initiative but the fact that Anderson was waved through the second he came into the system must have meant something.

"David, looking young," Dunn teased.

"Wonders of modern medicine," he smirked, adjusting his tie playfully.

"Uh-huh, I bet, and the dozens of extranet vids of you getting superpowers are what? Hoaxes?" she fixed his messed-up tie.

"You can't trust the extranet; they say Shepard is dead and there isn't an apocalypse on the horizon."

Huh~, look at that, Anderson has some game.

"All that aside, what brings you here? Our final checkup isn't for another 3 weeks, and you better not tell me that you're going to cut our budget, The Nexus has already taken off, you can't stop this party train anymore."

"No, no, nothing like that, I have a meeting with Hackett earth-side and thought of giving you a visit before you take off. I wasn't sure if I would get to do it in person."

"Oh~," she frowned, "Just a visit?"

"...Hackett told me he was going to arrive tomorrow~."

"Maker be good, get a room," EDI huffed, as Captain Dunn and Alec led us deeper into the ship.

"You're one to talk~," I teased.

"Public forms of affection can be tolerated as long as it remains PG, they're practically dry humping," she huffed.

"You're just upset Joker doesn't like making out in front of others."

"I want to gloat a little! I got the greatest pilot in the galaxy at my beck and call, according to the extranet, I'm winning at life and it's customary to show off."

"I know the feeling," Julee huffed. "No Julee, we can't do it here, we're out in public, no Julee, we can't do it here, you'll drown, no Julee, we can't do it here, there's a fire~. You know what's also on fire? MY LOINS!" she poked me in the chest, "One of these days Walters."

"We are not going to make love in a burning forest! Let it go woman!" She suggested it during one of the controlled fires we did to keep the woods around Sky Valley healthy.

"Love adventures Nick, dangerous love adventures~," she teased.

"By the Power of Grey Skull, I fell in love with a crazy person~."

Julee just laughed like she won something, "And you know what makes it better~?" she innocently smiled up at me~, "You like me~... no~, You like-like me. You'll like-like me forever~, allowing me to get away with more and more things as time goes on." she gently rubbed her thumb across my lips, "I'll have my super harem of Ladies~, the multiverse will be mine~."

"... Didn't you want to be a runic grandmaster?" I teased.

She shrugged, "A girl needs a hobby~."

A karate chop tapped her on the skull, "Nick might like you, but I can barely stand you, so keep it in your pants~," Jak warned.

"Enjoy your time in the light Jakky, my day will come~." Julee hissed.

Jak huffed, "We both know if I were to stumble Sky would swoop in and take control." We looked over to Sky, who was talking to a blushing Sara, poor Scott was trying to keep the dragon at bay, but Sky was just holding him up and away showing off her muscles. "For the love of-, Hey! get away from her, and put that boy back where you found him!" Jak ordered, marching over to Sky.

"Think you can handle Sky~?" I teased.

"Mmm~, it might take some work, but a baby would distract her long enough for me to strike," she gave me a gentle elbowing, "Keep your dingle berries locked and loaded."

"Always~, but I'm a little worried Tali might tear them off." I looked back to a glaring Tali, I don't think she realized how adorable she looked. I don't think Quarians understand facial expressions very well yet.

"Bah~, she's just a little grumpy, just have some Chocolate up your sleeve, but enough about that, tell me, do you like her outfit?" she clapped with joy.

Tali was wearing skintight fabric kinetic armor that covered most of her chest, ended right at the beginning of her thigh, and exposed most of her back showing off her tattoo, with a purple cloth in her Clan markings wrapping around her waist acting like a miniskirt and dress, with bright red sandals, shoes were difficult for a people who have a toe on the side of the foot.

"It's... fierce."

"I know right!? That Tattoo really adds some spice! You think I should get a tattoo?" Julee gave me a puppy dog look.

"Do I have to get one?" I asked. I'm not against tattoos, at least not Tribal tattoos, it was interesting to see how different cultures treat the importance of body art. From the way Lia and Zura found Tali's tattoo to be as fascinating as Element Zero, I guessed tattoos were something Quarians never really thought about, but that was only two Quarians, I would need a bigger sample to make a decent hypothesis.

"You don't have to, but~," she placed her hand on my left pec, "Wouldn't you look good with a tiny one right here? Maybe a fist of some kind? Maybe it's on fire? Maybe it's gold~?"

"...Maybe~."

She leaned forward so only I could hear, "If you do, I'll get a tattoo of anything you want~... anywhere you want~."

"... JENNY!?"

"WHAT!?" she yelled back, annoyed that I interrupted her conversation with Dagna and Ayla.

"I NEED A TATTOO, YESTERDAY!"

"HELL YEAH! I get to use my new shit!" We gave Jenny a magic tattoo gun for Satinalia, it kinda worked like an Omni tattoo, having the ability to project the tattoo for her to trace out with the gun and even the ability to erase previous tattoos. It also had expanded Ink cartridges; it was going to take quite a long time before it ran out of ink. "We can use it when we get back on the Normandy, you better not chicken out!"

"There is too much at stake to back down."

As I was going into detail with Jenny and Julee about my new tattoo, Alec was able to lead us to the cryo-bay.

"I hate this place," Jenny hissed. I draped one of my Jackets over her.

"I keep telling you to wear a shirt."

"And I told you my ink is too cool to cover up~," she hissed, zipping up the jacket.

"Ugh~, why are all my sisters exhibitionists? I swear the next sister I adopt better come with, like, all the jacket and sweater~," I teased, passing her a cup of tea.

"Then you'll complain about that, you're the kind of idiot who needs someone to help or you'll go crazy." she sipped her tea.

"I'll have you know that I become a lazy bastard the moment I get the chance, but every time I sit down some asshole starts banging at my door, and the longer I wait to answer the door more people keep showing up."

"You don't have to answer the door," she huffed.

"What am I? An asshole?"

"Yes~," Tali huffed.

"What was that? I can't hear you over that outfit~," I teased.

"I SAID YOU'RE-"

"CHOCOLATE!" I threw a chocolate bar across the room causing Tali to forget the rest of the conversation and run after it.

I turned to Jenny, "As I was saying, I'm super lazy, please wear a shirt, Tattoo."

"You forgot the part where you're an idiot, and stop pretending we're a family.

"Gasp! You want us to be a real family!" I pulled out some documents Telsa made for me from my inventory, "Just sign right here, and you'll be a Walters."

Jenny snapped the papers from my hands and looked them over, "Why the hell would I- wait your middle name is 'Cave Builder'?"

"Astral put it on my Legal paperwork when I wasn't paying attention." I showed her my ID. Nick 'Cave Builder' Walters.

"Why didn't you just change it?"

"What part of 'lazy bastard' are you not getting?" I leaned closer, "Also it makes Astral happy, and I tend to spoil her. I know I shouldn't, but I've always been generous to friends and family." We looked over to Astral who was eating some chips and talking to Scott, who was a bit embarrassed talking to a dragon in a bikini. I'm guessing Scott wasn't much of a smooth talker yet.

"Walters," Alec called me over to a cryo-pod.

I looked at the name on the container. "Elizabeth Reilly?"

Cryo-pod – created by Ariake Technologies and Aldrin Labs.

When a living body is exposed to low temperatures, ice crystals form which can damage its cells. Improper freezing of a subject will result in massive trauma and death.Through the application of mass effect stasis fields on and around the subject mitigates the formation of these crystals and suspends cell replication. Following revival protocols, the subject wakes up in more or less the same state regardless of the passage of time.

Durability – 50/50

Mmm, I focused on the woman in the pod.

Human Engineer

Ellen Ryder

Age: 51

Lvl: 9

HP: 25 / 190

MP: 0/1

Ailments:

Cryogenically frozen (HP regen frozen) (3,000 MP)

AEND (1,000 MP)

Element zero poisoning (250 MP)

Brain degradation (1,000 MP)

Muscle atrophy (800 MP)

Coma (500 MP and 300 CP)

In the 2150s, Ellen was a pioneering designer of implants designed to enhance the abilities of human biotics. Her work eventually evolved into the L2 and L3 implants.

She met Alec Ryder whilst he was stationed in Rio De Janeiro for N7 training.

After the First Contact War, Ellen moved to the Citadel to join Alec during his posting as a military attaché. She later gave birth to twins there in 2163.

Throughout her career researching biotics, Ellen was repeatedly exposed to Element Zero, which eventually caused her to develop AEND, a rare terminal neuro-degenerative disorder with no known cure. At least one of Ellen's exposures occurred while she was pregnant, potentially granting one or both of her children the very biotic abilities she was studying.

She is frozen

"Mom?" Sara whispered.

"Alec? Why is Ellen frozen in a box?" Anderson asked looking at the cryo-pod. "What did you do?"

"I had to find a way."

"Sam~," Captain Dunn muttered.

"I thought Sam would be able to save her," Alec sighed.

"Sam?" Shepard asked.

"Hello Commander," a synthetic voice came over the intercom, "I am SAM, Simulated Adaptive Matrix, I am the Hyperion's AI."

"KEELAH!? What is with you humans!?" Tali hissed, "Are we Quarians not enough warning!? I'm just going to start punching-"

"Chocolate~!" I threw another chocolate bar down the hall getting her to run after it. "So, you want me to heal her?"

The look Alec gave sent a shiver up my spine, "Can you?"

"You need to defrost her, but yeah, it shouldn't be too hard."

Alec flew into action, pressing buttons, and getting the pod to open. A cloud of artificial frozen air hit me in the face, Ellen still had some frost, but it was quickly melting away. With the ice out of the way healing her wasn't anything overly difficult, starting with the largest drain first and working my way down, it took a moment for the glowing magical healing created to fade but by the end, she looked ready to jump out of the pod.

"Is she?" Alec looked up at me.

"Give her a moment. Her brain is shaking off the cobwebs," I sighed, walking over to a makeshift bench. I still had plenty of MP left but using that much Mana at once still feels draining.

"You okay?" Dagna asked, sitting next to me and passing me her water skin.

I took a chug. "Yeah, some things were just a bit costly."

"Just don't overdo it." she draped my arm over her shoulder as she leaned against me.

I cuddled her closer. "You know me~."

"I do, that's why I'm telling you to take it easy."

"Thank you for looking after me." I gave her a kiss on her forehead.

"Likewise~," she pulled me into a kiss.

"Ugh~, What's going on? Where am I?" an English accent called out from the pod as Ellen gently got up.

"ELLEN!" Alec brought her into a deep hug, their children joining in. There were plenty of tears, cheers, and explanations. Luckily for me, all I had to do was make some sandwiches, Ellen scarfed them down like a starving wolf.

"Alright~, With Lady Ryder on her feet, and Anderson's story ready to air, all that's left is you two." I looked over to the Ryder twins. "So, what do you want?"

"What can we get?" Sara asked.

"... What do you want?" I repeated.

"I want the power to heal!" Scott stepped forward, ticket in hand, his eyes were still slightly red from crying. "My mother almost died, I will not hope for a miracle, never again."

"... Do you know what you ask for boy?" I allowed a bit of my intimidation skill to leak. "Magic is a double-edged sword, more people have been killed by their own stupidity than by others, and make no mistake, you will get hurt."

"Can't you teach me?"

"No. I don't have the time; this Galaxy is about to be invaded by giant space mecha cuttlefish hell-bent on destroying all advanced sentient life. If you want this, you'll be doing this on your own."

"No, he won't," Sara countered, stepping up to her brother. "As his older sister, it's my job to take care of him."

"By a minute," Scott muttered.

"The quietest minute I ever had, I still remember it fondly," She teased him.

"...So, is this what you really want? Once you do this, there is no going back."

They both did that weird Twin communication Ava and Lyna did. They both turned to me and nodded, "We can do this," they both answered at the same time.

"... Alright," I shrugged and leashed my Intimidation Skill, "You are adults." I summoned two Redwood golems and connected them to their mana cores. Scott just looked at his Golem in awe as it morphed and changed from a spaceship to a tiny soldier, to a stick. "Take good care of them, they will also lower the cost of casting spells, but that would be much of a problem." I reached out and placed my hand on Scott's shoulder.

Do you wish to bestow power on Scott Ryder?

WARNING you can only do this once!

Cost: 800 MP and 800 CP

Gain: 200 MP, 200 CP, 200 BP, +5 levels, 20 to all stats.

Reward: 1,000 XP

Yes

Scott lit up like a star.

"MOTHERFU-" Anderson screamed.

"I was ready that time!" Shepard cheered.

"Good for you!" Sara screamed in pain and anger covering her eyes.

Ah~, that will never not be funny to me.

"Woah~," Scott muttered, looking at his glowing form as it slowly faded back to normal. "Am I taller? My voice!" Scott's voice did drop but it wasn't too crazy, but I guess hearing the voice you had for your entire life change can be a little jarring.

"I'll be taking that~." I plucked the ticket from his hands. Giving myself some time to regain my MP and CP, it gave me time to create a few tomes of knowledge, nothing crazy, just some cantrips and spells I consider easy, for beginners.

Do you wish to create tomes of power for Healing hand, Light, Mend, bubble head charm, Fire Bolt, Resistance, Mage Hand, Prestidigitation, Guidance, Mold Earth, Meditate, Thunderclap, Spell shaping, Create water, chain lightning, and Shimmering shield?

Cost: 800 MP

Reward: 5 XP, tomes of the following spells: Healing hand, Light, Mend, bubble head, Fire Bolt, Resistance, Mage Hand, Prestidigitation, Guidance, Mold Earth, Meditate, Thunderclap, Spell shaping, Create water, chain lightning, and Shimmering shield

Yes

The MP drained from my bar and Tomes appeared in inventory. "Clothes beam~." I transformed his poor clothes into blue bathrobes with his name embroidered in gold.

"Whoa~, What is this?" Scott asked, feeling his new robe.

"Cloud sheep from the Iron Slopes of Rezum," I answered.

One of the places I visited on my year-long vacation was Jak and Julee's home country of Rezum. Unlike Thedas, the rest of the world wasn't affected by Solas's veil spell, so magic was still going strong everywhere else, and they weren't scared to use it to their advantage.

The Iron Slopes were once known for their Iron mines, crazy, I know, but like all good things it didn't last, still towns and cities were built there, and people weren't going to leave just because the mines ran empty. The towns turned into trading hubs, using the trade network the mines created to stay afloat and useful, and in order to gain a new cash cow, people started creating new things the cities and towns could use as exclusive products, and with necessity being the mother of all inventions, the Iron Slopes created some pretty crazy stuff, Roller blades, Disco, Sunglasses, but one of the more interesting products created was the Cloud Sheep.

Some Farming wizard infused magic into sheep trying to make them grow wool faster but instead made their wool softer, smoother, and with the ability to float. This made them valuable but easy prey when they had a full coat, unable to control their floating, but did group up to look like clouds.

A Cloud Sheep's wool was worth its amount in gold, and like anything worth having, it was worth stealing, but whatever the wizard did to give the Sheep their magic wool, it also affected their magical production. The Sheep could only create Magical wool that had to be at a certain elevation, if not they only grow normal wool. It also cost a bit of MP to create, that bathrobe alone cost me 500 MP to create.

"I don't know what that is, but it's nice~."

"It better be~," I huffed. I used Meditate for a moment increasing my MP and CP Regen, unlocking the Mana and Chi in a person is tiring. "Sara, when you're ready."

"I'm not going to grow an extra foot or anything, right?"

I shrugged, "Everyone is a bit different, my power only unlocks your potential, your own body and mana core dictate the changes needed to use that power." I pointed over to Tali and Ayla, "Tali over there, the one covered in chocolate like a child-"

"-Screw you!"

"She grew about 3 inches, her body and mana didn't need height, but her muscles fibers are strengthened. Ayla-" Ayla waved, getting Sara's attention, "Grew nearly a foot and gained muscle."

Ayla gave a flex, showing off some of her muscles, she wasn't going to win a Mr. Universe competition, but you can definitely see them, "I used to be all sticks and bones~."

"You'll grow into what you need to be, nothing more nothing less," I answered.

She nodded, "Yeah, yeah okay."

Her Power Bestowal cost the same as her brother, along with her robes and tomes.

"Here," I passed them their new tomes," these are just the basics, they will be a good start," I pulled away as they reached for them, "don't read them all at once, these are magical tomes, they only work once before they turn to ash, no do-overs." I gave them the tomes, "One a day, period." I took a deep breath, allowing my MP to max out, and I made one more pair of tomes.

Do you wish to create tomes?

2X: Sunburst, teleport, Quivering Palm, Dragon rage

Cost: 2,000 MP and 500 CP

Reward: 50 XP, two tomes of the following spells: Sunburst, teleport, Quivering Palm, Dragon Rage

Yes

I felt a headache coming on and my body emptying out.

Doing tomes of information like reading and writing only made me feel slightly buzzed, normal Magical and Chi skills drained me, and high-power spells made me feel like I was beaten by the ocean and dumped on land. The tomes were never worth the cost, it was easier and safer to just teach someone the old-fashioned way, but I didn't really have the option here.

I made a show of summoning the tomes and putting them in magical boxes. "These are some of my most powerful standalone spells," I passed the boxes to Alec, "Only give them these when you think they are ready." As Alec grabbed the boxes, I placed my hand over his, "This isn't a joke Alec, these spells are dangerous. Someone unprepared can hurt themselves or even die, only give it to them when they've had enough training with their other powers, do you understand?" Alec nodded. "Good." I turned to the twins, "Now, one last thing." I summoned two magical armors and Bags of Holding, the armors weren't customized but were well-rounded and enhanced the user's MP and CP, as well as acting as a Focus for spells.

"Magical armor?" David muttered. "All this for a couple of tickets?"

I shrugged, "The tickets need to mean something David, if I just gave them half-assed nonsense people wouldn't value the tickets. I have to go the whole nine yards, but with this, they should be set for their first century, after that they should be fine on their own."

"First century?" Scott asked.

I gave a small chuckle, "Oh~, Scott, you really didn't think this through, did you? To be fair I probably should have said something, but let's be honest, you seem like the type of man to take the plunge anyway. The mana in your system will extend your life a good 200 to 300 years, your Chi will probably double that, so you're looking at about an extra 600 years give or take, longer, if you take care of yourself, eat your vegetables, workout, keep in mind stimulated, that sort of stuff."

"Am I going to live that long?" Anderson asked.

I shrugged, "I'll give you 400 years, you're a military man, and you probably have a routine you can't really break, keeping you in tip top condition."

"... How do your people handle their long lives?" Ellen asked. I think she may have minored in biology because she was all kinds of interested.

Julee shrugged, "You need to understand that not everyone uses magic or chi, they're like everyone else, usually coming with a regular lifespan of about 80 years, some races may vary, but that's usually a good base number."

"And those with magic?"

"We retire every hundred years or so. Most people tend to have saved enough money to not work for a few dozen years, we call that retirement, a time when you are allowed to do nothing, enjoy your break, see the world! Most people tend to reinvent themselves, study something new, live somewhere else, start families." She elbowed me with a smirk.

"I'm surprised your world isn't overpopulated," Tali said, trying to lick her face for any leftover chocolate.

I pulled out a napkin and began wiping her face, much to her annoyance. "Our world isn't safe," I answered, giving Tali a cup of hot chocolate. "We have monsters, demons, magical wildlife, spirits, gods, and let's not forget over 30 other sentient races that can't get along. From the wise Orcs," I made an illusion of a buff orc stuffed in a sweater vest holding book and wearing glasses, "to the savage Halflings," an illusion of a painted halfling in a loincloth holding a spear, "to the dangerous high Dragons," I created an illusion of Sky eating the raw leg of a druffalo, her eyes glowing with annoyance at someone interrupting her meal before I let the image fade.

"How did humans survive in a world like this?" Ellen asked.

"Mmm~," Jak gave it some thought, "According to Pa, they didn't, at least not right away. From what I remember from my history lessons, humans originated from the savannas of the continent, Odias, it used to be a large forest but something about droughts and heat changed the continent's ecosystem forcing early humans to evolve, like much of the other races. We still don't understand it much, but it's the popular belief that the gods were responsible for the evolution, but no god has ever taken responsibility for it," she shrugged, "it's possible that the God who did it has yet to be born or has died, Gods are impossible to understand, their life cycles is confusing to any mortal being."

Ayla nodded, "When gods come to be, they always were and will be. Try not to think about it."

"Anyways, Humans were a decent race, they had intelligence, endurance, and the ability to adapt, they were well rounded but never really stood out in any way, except for one~," Jak teased.

"One?" Shepard asked.

"Mating," Jak answered, shocking everyone.

"What?" David asked.

"Humans can mate with just about every species and produce above average offspring, and in a world where death was around every corner, the ability to produce children was a must."

"Are you telling me~... humans survived because they could fuck~," Jenny laughed.

"Kinda, yeah. some species have trouble producing children, for some reason, human genes never had that problem." she shrugged, "You can imagine the danger human men were in, with races going to war with one another."

"Men? Not women?" David asked.

"I'm not saying women weren't in danger, but it still took 9 months for most babies to be born, a single male could impregnate over a dozen women within a month. Whenever a war broke out humans would be hunted, we believe that's where humans gain their endurance, but that was millennia ago, nowadays humans are everywhere, on every continent, city, town, and village, they literally slept their way into every race."

"Good old humanity, if you can't punch it to death, hump it until they love you," I teased. "Which reminds me." I tossed the twins a pair of love rings. "Those keep you from getting others pregnant, and I'm not just talking about other humans, Turians, Krogans, Asari, Quarians, it doesn't matter, you can now get almost anyone, or yourself, pregnant, so, no glove, no love."

"Huh~," Anderson spoke up. I tossed him one.

"You're serious?" Sara muttered, looking at her ring.

"Very. Don't lose them, I'm only giving you the one," I warned, giving Scot his own.

"I don't feel any different," Scott pointed out, looking at the ring on his finger.

"Why would you?" I asked. "The ring affects your swimmers, making them unable to enter an egg, for females it keeps their eggs from being penetrated, that protection is lost the moment you remove the ring."

"So, I'm an Asari now?" Sara asked.

"... What? No, you weirdo, you're human. Did you turn blue when I wasn't paying attention?" I asked.

"No, I mean I can now make babies with any race," she corrected.

"oh, hum, no, you need to understand your child will probably be a new species, a mix of human and whatever you're into, I'm going with..." I gave her a hard look, "Turian, and seen I only know one Turian~." I snapped my fingers and made an illusion of Garrus and Sara, before merging them, "Magic will be the binding agent, filtering out undesirable traits, things that might hurt the future child, while picking useful traits that will help the child survive." I started playing with the illusion, "Let's see~, Humans have better endurance and musculature, so a more human body would work better. Turians skin and scales reflect better UV radiation, so that would be a must." I kept playing with the illusion, fingers, legs, arms, fingers, eyes, even down to the roundness of the face, until a Human-Turian adult female stood in front of us. She looked a bit more human but had a turian's brow plate with long flowing hair, a human's body shape with scales, she almost looked like a human-dragon with Garrus's face paint. "And there you have it, a Human-Turian hybrid."

Everyone just looked at the new being in front of us. By human standards, she looked exotic and alien enough not to fall into the uncanny valley effect like Asari did.

"My niece looks adorable~," Scott teased, as I made the illusion give a few flexes.

"Shut up," she hissed at her brother, "Garrus, you're a handsome Turian and our babies would be beautiful, but I think we want different things in life," she teased.

Garrus nodded, "To love and lose is better to not have loved at all, or whatever that human saying was-"

"'Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all'," Jenny muttered. "Get it right if you're going to use it."

"Right, sorry," he deadpanned, "In any case, thank you for telling me before you left the galaxy forever." He smiled over to Sara, who teasingly waved away the comment, as the illusion faded.

"So, with the Ryder clan taken care of, what are we doing with you 5?" I looked over to the team of N7s.

"Magic would be nice~," Carter joked.

"Oh, I bet, but I don't think you're thinking it all the way through. These guys~," I pointed to the Ryder twins, "Are about to leave on some other Galaxy-trotting adventure, probably never returning to the Milkyway, meaning they don't have to deal with the Alliance or the Council. You on the other hand won't get that choice. At the moment, the alliance is watching over you but when you retire, you're gonna be on your own. I can guarantee you that at this very moment, there are dozens of scientists flooding The Everest trying to figure out how my portal works, I almost feel bad for Hackett, almost~."

"Those scientists have questions," David sighed.

That got me to laugh a bit, "I'm guessing you've become my liaison."

"In a sense, I can talk to Shepard, and Shepard can talk to you."

"That's nice, do I have to pay you? Give you an employee contract?"

"... how much do you pay?"

"Anderson," Shepard huffed, arms crossed, "I have to deal with him every day, I should be the one being paid."

"Leave it to a millionaire to take money from a poor innocent man," David teased.

"Innocent man!? Didn't you space me in low orbit to learn how to use my armor's emergency parachute to teach me how to think on my feet!? Or maybe the time you stripped me naked with only a low-powered cloaking device before dumping me in the middle of Times Square to teach me time management!? Or maybe the time you duct taped steaks to my body and sent me through the African Savanna to teach me animal handling!?"

"I did it so you can be a better soldier!" Anderson barked back at his protege's whining.

"Oh... that's where he gets it from~," Half our group groaned at the same time.

"Really David," Alec huffed, "You shouldn't baby your troops like that."

"Ehh~, what kind of monster is this guy?" I muttered. Looking over to the twins, I found them just staring out into space with a dead look on their faces, I'm guessing they'd also gone through the same training. It would give some understanding of why Scott and Sara made good pathfinders; they had already fought through hell, what's a little 'certain death' after that. "We'll talk about your pay later," I turned to the N7 team, "Have you given it some thought, I can't wait here forever."

"I'll take that risk," Cat answered, stepping forward, stretching out her hand for a handshake.

"Armor," I warned. While her under armor was elastic, mass-produced to fit any soldier, her outer armor wasn't, and if she outgrew it in her transformation, it wouldn't end well.

"... Right, hum," she turned to Captain Dunn.

"Lockers are out the medical room and down the hall to the left."

Cat didn't hesitate, she was out of the room in a matter of moments, her team right behind her, except for Ghost.

He began signing at me, 2 years of high school ASL coming to the surface, "Magic, heal, throat." Okay, I wasn't the best student, but I got the basics, he wanted me to give him the ability to talk.

I nodded. "Sure, but I should warn you, just because I healed your speech muscles doesn't mean you'll be giving speeches right away, just like sign language you're going to have to practice." Healing him took but a moment and 150MP.

"THanK Yoo." His voice was weak, and he had a hard time holding a tone, but I could understand. He gave me a nod and ran off after his team.

"... Will I be able to do that?" Scott asked.

"... sure, if you put work into it and understand the human body. I would suggest studying under a doctor for a bit, magic is a fun shortcut, but it would be best if you knew the road to begin with, otherwise, you'll be doing more harm than good."

I gave Scott and Sara their first lesson in magic and using a tome to perform their first spell, light. Dagna told them that she was going to make them a few dozen videos on how magic works and where they should be in their magic training before moving on to their next step, and send them over before they took off.

It didn't take long before the N7 team came back, only Cat and Rosie wanted magic, the rest only got Chi. Not being a complete jerk, I gave them a tome of Spell Shaping.

Might as well leave them with something to work on, Dagna also promised to share her videos with the team.

-/-

Julee POV

With the Ryder clan back to full force, the N7 team fully decked out, and having EDI, Legion, and Sam meet, much to Tali's annoyance, Nicky wanted to see if they would plot World domination, only for EDI to immediately turn it down, she already had to take care of one human and Joker was already a full-time job.

Of course, Nicky donated a few dozen health potions, cure-all potions, and three ingots of Badassium and the plans to make a decent size arc reactor to help power the ship if something goes wrong, the tradeoff was that the first real settlement the human pathfinder found had to be called Rump Roast, much to Alec's annoyance.

With all that out of the way, we were now heading into the Attican Traverse at Jenny's request.

"YOUCH!" Nick cried.

"Stop crying you baby~," Jenny huffed as she tattooed my chest.

"You can beeee a little gentler~."

"I'm stabbing you with a needle," she huffed. The moment we got back to the Normandy, Jenny had Nick in the observation room where we put her new tattoo parlor, it did squeeze Samara's meditation room a bit to the left, not doubt messing with the funk shui, but I didn't really care, you only got to hog your room not an entire lounge area.

"Then stab me gently, dang girl~."

I was right next to Nick petting his hand, "It's okay baby, just a little more and it will be all better, just push through it."

"... I'm not delivering a baby~," he huffed.

"Really? You could have fooled me~," Ava teased from the couch, reading her omni-tool.

"Ava, my beautiful cyborg elf, why are you here?" Nick was right, I've known Ava long enough that looking out into space in meditation isn't something she did, she relaxed doing mundane house chores, something she picked up taking care of her rather explosive sister.

"I'm just here to finish up my tattoo," she answered nonchalantly.

"... Tattoo?" Nick and I asked at the same time. I felt my power rise, how did I not know about this!?

"Jenny started it yesterday, wanting to test her new toy, and I was looking to get a tattoo, Zevran got to me, that man is persuasive~."

I practically teleported to her side cupping her face, "Ava, Ava, AVA!?"

"Yes, Julee?" she asked, cool as a cucumber. Too cool... Dagna~, when I get my hands on that Dwarf~.

"Where is it, better yet!" I allowed my power to leak, "Let me find it~."

Racial ability: lust, has been activated.

Ava Tabris, Jennifer Nought, and Nick Walters have blocked your ability.

At this range!? How powerful have you gotten? Jenny I understand, she's not into women, but Ava!?

"Mmm~," Ava gave an undecisive hum, before giving Julee a little kiss, "Nope~, I want it to be a surprise."

"AVAAA~." This Elf is playing a dangerous game, I started peppering her with kisses, I needed to break down her defenses, and Ava loves affection, "Your butt's so tone~," I whispered into her ear, she loved the intimacy.

"Don't even try it~." she pinched my bottom, getting me to yelp. "Besides weren't you here to make sure our damsel was properly branded?" Ava teased. Oh~, she's playing hardball.

"Sweet Miracle on Ice! Jenny, come on girl!?" Nick cried out as Jenny shoved her tattoo gun a little too hard into his skin.

"How are you such a big baby!? Aren't you some kind of interdimensional badass?"

"It doesn't matter how much of a 'badass' you are, pain is still pain, why do you think I have overpowered armor? Only idiots run around looking for pain on a battlefield," he huffed at her.

"God what a little bitch, the first time we met you were a little scary, but now that I know you, I realized you're nothing but a dork," she huffed, finally slapping some medi-gel onto his chest, soothing his pain, "There, the outline is done, I'll finish filling in the rest tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? Why not today?"

"Because you've annoyed me enough for one day, now scram, Ava, you're up." she shoved Nick off the chair.

"What kind of bedside manners are those!?" He hopped back to his feet.

"The kind that are telling you to fuck off," she stated, waving him away like an annoying fly.

"How dare you~?" He ran over to Ava and started peppering her with kisses, "I'm here to give my beautiful girlfriend my loving support and care! And if I happen to see her tattoo that's a small bonus~," he muttered that last part.

"It's just a coincidence," I added, helping Nick tear down Ava's defenses. Ava cupped Nick's face and shoved her tongue down his throat, catching him completely off guard and leaving him in a daze. Oh, Nicky, I love him, but one solid kiss and he becomes putty in your hands. My face was cupped and turned to Ava, who proceeded to also have her way with my mouth. Sweet dastardly evil, I loved her sweet fruity taste, how can anyone taste this sweet~.

I didn't want her to stop, but she popped her lips free, "There. Now scram." she shoved us out of the room.

"B-but!" I panicked, "You can't leave me like this!"

She gave me her sexy uncaring face, "Watch me~." The door slid shut locking us out.

"What a woman~," Nick sighed.

"You can say that again~," I hooked my arm around his and started pulling him towards our room, "Come on, you hot pieces of ass have left me hot and bothered." I reached over and traced his tattoo. Mine. "No shirts, not anymore."

"I can't walk around shirtless," he teased, pulling me in close.

"Says who? Who has the balls to contradict me?" I huffed.

"Put on a shirt you weirdo," Tali said as she walked out of the elevator.

"Tali~," I sang. I waved her over, I could feel the smirk growing on my face. See I made a little modification to Nick's tattoo. The J-family crest was a left-hand doing devil horns wreath in flames, I changed the flames into something... else, and by Tali's quickly reddening face, I nailed it.

"W-WHAT IS THAT!?" she pointed to Nick's chest.

"Mmm~?" I smiled innocently. "Are you talking about Nick's new permanent tattoo?"

"P-permanent!?"

"Yep~, do you like it?" I traced his tattoo.

"WHY DOES IT HAVE MY CLAN MARKINGS!?"

Instead of flames, the hand was circled in Tali's clan markings.

"Mmm? Is it? I didn't notice~."

"You can't do this!?" she squeaked.

I strolled forward, pressing her against the wall. "Oh?"

Racial trait activated: lust

Tali'Zorah has been affected

"What are you going to do about it? Zorah~?" I asked, making sure she couldn't escape. Oh, my poor little Quarian, so brave, she can face down monsters, but a little bit of intimacy and she crumbles. I leaned close, our lips inches apart, she had the sweet smell of chocolate. Reaching into my Bag of Holding, I pulled out a bar of chocolate and rubbed it against my mouth like lipstick.

"Y-you're a bosh'tet," she hissed.

"And yet you move forward." Was it wrong of me to use chocolate? Maybe~, did I care? Not even a little. All's fair in love and war~. Her tongue tasted of chocolate, I'm not sure if it was because of my chocolate or the chocolate she ate earlier today, I didn't really care. She had no experience in kissing, she was wild trying to taste everything, so easy to control. Her, Zura, Lia... all mine~. My fun was brought to an end as Nick pulled me away. I was about to yell at him, but the look he gave me told me I may have teased him a little too much.

You have left Nick Walter's party, thanks for playing.

Oh, I'm not walking tomorrow~. He threw me over his shoulder like a caveman. Looking back at a blushing Tali, breathing heavily, eyes fully dilated. "I'm sorry my sweet," I waved goodbye, licking the rest of the chocolate off my lips, "Let's finish next time, better yet... you should join us~." I teased as the door to our home away from home closed.

The look of frightened lust on her face sent a shiver up my spine. One more step. I felt Nick's meaty paw grab my rump.

I just need to survive the night~.

-/-

A/N: Boom, bam, zoom, another one down.

So, some quick things,

Hakins didn't have a first name, so I just gave him his voice actor's first name.

I felt like Sidonis would have lasted longer and probably gained scars trying to keep his team safe, but you know the saying, 'everyone breaks'.

I wanted to sprinkle a like Shadow broker.

Garrus's loyalty mission is out of the way

And we are moving on in the story.

I'm also trying to keep the story a bit light like Dragon Age, Mass Effect is a pretty dark game when you think about it.

Like always sorry for any grammar mistakes, I'm only human and I have no editor

I also have a DeviantArt page where I put art of the fic, link in bio.